1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a mobile dental unit, which has a housing of tabletop height with a width of less than half its height and which on a narrow side is provided with a plurality of side-by-side storage receptacles for dental handpieces which have supply hoses extending through the respective receptacle into the housing to a source of supply fluids such as air pressure, electricity and/or water.
2. Prior Art
Mobile dental units are known and an example is disclosed in British Patent No. 1,138,294. Such a mobile dental unit is especially suitable for use by a dentist who is in a sitting position and the unit can be fitted into a bay or recess provided in cabinets adjacent to a dental chair. Due to the small dimension of the housing of the unit, the unit may be moved to a position as close as possible to the patient and within reach of the dentist so that he may obtain a handpiece without requiring excessive body movement or rotation. In order to be stored in a recess or bay of a cabinet and since the dentist is utilizing the handpieces while in a sitting position, the dimensions of the housing of the unit are necessarily small. Because the length of the supply hose must be of a predetermined order to enable sufficient freedom of movement and range for the handpiece during its use, the reduced or small dimensions of the unit creates problems with the storage of the supply hoses of the handpieces which are not in use.
In the last couple of years, dentists have requested a constantly increasing variety of handpieces. At an earlier time a dentist was often satisfied with the arrangement of two or at the most three so-called primary handpieces, which are the handpieces that are used most frequently by the dentist during his work and are being constantly interchanged, for example, electromotor and/or turbine handpieces with dental drill attachments and the frequently used spray handpiece. Today, however, the dentist is faced with frequent requests for use of an arrangement of at least three primary handpieces in addition to these several so-called secondarily used handpieces, which are handpieces which the dentist uses only infrequently or only for special treatments, for example, ultrasonic tartar deposit removal handpieces, high frequency surgical handpieces, ultraviolet light handpieces, and drill handpieces with attachments that are used only infrequently. The storage of all these primary and secondary handpieces in a mobile dental unit provided with receptacles and having a small size creates problems. These problems are due to the space availability of the unit for both storing the long supply hose of each handpiece which length is required to provide the maximum range of use and for positioning each of the handpieces in a receptacle so that they can be reached without interference from closely spaced handpieces.